U.S. Women Head to Serbia 2-1 in FIVB World Grand Prix

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 6, 2013) – The top-ranked U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team enters its second weekend of the FIVB World Grand Prix preliminary round in Belgrade, Serbia, with a 2-1 record and six points after having faced welcomed adversity in Brazil.

Team USA starts Pool F versus No. 14 Algeria (0-3, 0 points) on Aug. 9, followed by No. 19 Netherlands (1-2, 3 points) on Aug. 10 and host No. 9 Serbia (3-0, 9 points) on Aug. 11. All three matches take place at 11:15 a.m. PT and can be viewed live online at universalsports.com/watch-live/.

“We have Algeria, Netherlands and Serbia this weekend, and they are all strong teams,” U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly said. “We take every opponent we face as the best one we can possibly face. It starts with Algeria. I have not had a chance to watch much video on them, so I can’t tell much about them. Our goal we will be as it is every time we put on a USA uniform, and that is to maximize our chances to win the next point. We look at it as an opportunity to learn and improve in the course of competition.”

After this coming weekend, the U.S. travels to Sendai, Japan, for the final preliminary round weekend to play No. 24 Czech Republic on Aug. 16, host No. 3 Japan on Aug. 17 and No. 43 Bulgaria on Aug. 18 in Pool M action.

Kiraly, in his first year leading the program after serving as an assistant coach from 2009 to 2012, has selected outside hitters Kristin Hildebrand (Orem, Utah), Kim Hill (Portland, Ore.), Regan Hood (Dallas) and Cassidy Lichtman (Poway, Calif.) to participate in the second weekend of pool competition taking place in Serbia. The middle blockers on the roster are Rachael Adams (Cincinnati, Ohio), Lauren Gibbemeyer (St. Paul, Minn.), Christa Harmotto (Hopewell Township, Pa.) and Lauren Paolini (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

Each team can make changes to its weekly FIVB World Grand Prix roster and carry up to 14-players selected from its 22-player preliminary roster. An hour before each match, head coaches must submit the team’s 12-player roster for that day’s match.

Team USA’s two leading scorers are rookies to FIVB competition. Through the first week of action, Hill ranks 11th overall in scoring with 47 points (37 kills, four blocks and six aces). Murphy has collected 41 points (32 kills, four blocks and five aces) to rank tied for 16th. Murphy is second in Best Spiker with a 49.23 kill percent. Hill ranks third in Best Server with a 0.55 ace average, while Murphy is 10th in the category with 0.45 per set.

Hildebrand, the U.S. team captain, is 28th in Best Spiker with a 36.6 kill percent. Gibbemeyer, also a newcomer to World Grand Prix action, and Glass have averaged 0.73 blocks per set to rank 11th in the category. Despite being a setter, Glass ranks second overall in Best Digger with a 4.00 dig average to go being fourth in Best Setter with a 6.18 running sets average. Miyashiro is ninth in digs with a 3.18 set average.

Serbia’s Jovana Brakocevic was named the most valuable player for Pool B held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from August 2-4. She currently ranks seventh in scoring (55 points) among all players in the competition. She also ranks third in Best Spiker with a 49.0 kill percent. Her teammate Brankica Mihajlovic is fifth in scoring with 57 points. Milena Rasic has a tournament-best 1.90 blocks average for Serbia.

Netherlands has been led in scoring by Anne Bujis with 43 points, which ranks 15th in the competition. Robin DeKruijf and Quinta Stenbergen of the Netherlands rank second and seventh in block average after the first weekend, while Femke Stoltenborg is the top-rated setter with 8.45 running sets average.

The U.S., the three-time defending FIVB World Grand Prix champions, opened the tournament with a four-set win over No. 6 Russia, followed by a sweep of No. 15 Poland in Campinas, Brazil. In both matches, World Grand Prix rookies Murphy and Hill stood out. Both had an unofficial 16 points (team DataVolley stats) in the win over Russia, while Murphy led the squad with 16 points against Poland.

With an 18-match World Grand Prix win streak on the line and a perfect 10-0 record to start the 2013 season, Team USA met host Brazil in a classic matchup of No. 1 and No. 2 in front of an energetic crowd of 4,500 spectator s in which all tickets to the match were sold within an hour of going on sale. Team USA jumped out in front to win the first set 25-17 against its host. However, Brazil used several strings of unanswered points to claim the next three sets 25-23, 25-18 and 25-20. Hill ended as the team’s leading scorer with 15 points, according to the team’s unofficial DataVolley stats.

“Overall I think the first weekend of World Grand Prix went well for USA,” Kiraly said. “We had lots of new faces. We only had one player last week who played in her normal role from the London Olympics, and that was Christa Harmotto. All-in-all it was a nice effort. We also learned certainly in the loss to Brazil about some things to improve upon, and that is this team’s number-one job, each athlete’s number-one job, and each coach and staff member’s number one job – to learn and improve and grow. We got some great lessons against Brazil in a match we could have won. We will improve on some things and maybe make it more possible to win next time.”

After the first weekend, four teams among the 20 countries participating in this year’s World Grand Prix old the maximum nine standings points with Japan leading China, Italy and Serbia in the group. Brazil follows in fifth place with a 3-0 record but with eight points. The U.S. is in a group of four teams with 2-1 records and six points. Netherlands, Team USA’s second opponent this weekend, is in 12th place with a 1-2 record with a sweep over Cuba on the opening day. Algeria is in last place with an 0-3 record.

The FIVB World Grand Prix utilizes a grueling format that includes a three-weekend preliminary round schedule with four teams competing in five different cities each weekend from Aug. 2-18. The FIVB World Grand Prix Final Round will take place Aug. 28-Sept. 1 in Sapporo, Japan, with the top five countries from the preliminary round plus Japan as the host country. Japan has hosted the FIVB World Grand Prix Final Round four previous times, the most recent being in 2009.

The U.S. has won the last three FIVB World Grand Prix events and has won five titles overall (1995, 2001, 2010, 2011, 2012). The Americans will be attempting to win an unprecedented four straight titles as Brazil won three times from 2004-2006. Since 2010, the U.S. has captured every FIVB World Grand Prix Final Round gold medal and recorded a 40-5 record in the event over the last three years.